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October 9, 2007

Schadenfreude 31 (A Continuing Series)

Death, taxes, Derek Jeter producing in the postseason. You can remove the last component from that list.

Jeter disappeared for the AL Division Series ... The Yankees captain had two singles in last night's 6-4 loss to the Indians in Game 4 of the ALDS, but finished the series 3-for-17 (.176) with no homers and one RBI. ...

Jeter's last chance to make a big contribution came in the sixth inning last night after the Yankees had cut Cleveland's lead to 6-2 and put runners on first and third with one out. With the Stadium buzzing, Jeter hit into a double play, all but pouring a bucket of cold water on the season.

Only adding to Jeter's offensive woes, he did not walk in the series and struck out four times. Over the final two games he hit into three double plays.

There was no such heroic moment for Jeter in this series. He was an October mess, as were the Yankees.

... by the ninth inning last night, many seats at a quiet Yankee Stadium were empty, as if a new reality had overwhelmed the old; the mystique and aura giving way to frustration and recriminations. No more champagne, just pagne.

So nice to wake up to the last edition of schadenfreude for the 2007 season.

Now, on to the ALCS! What will I do until Friday? Perhaps catch up on some idiotic TV? Read something other than baseball stuff? Get some work done? Make all those return calls to friends and family I have been avoiding? Or sit at the laptop with the JOS crew and start anticipating the games against Cleveland? Hmmm, time will tell!

Congrats to the Cleveland Indians on playing their asses off and beating (NOT upsetting, as Chip Dumbass Carey would have you believe) the Yankees.

Alan, I have to say that when you started this series, I worried that karma would come back and slap the Sox over the head. I'm glad to say that I was wrong. The day the Yankees exit the playoffs is always the happiest day of the baseball year for me (well, non Red Sox related, anyway). I'm tired as hell, but it was worth it to see the Indians celebrating on the field of the Stadium.

Wow. All I can say is wow. Couldn't quite make it through the game last night...had to get my butt up out of bed at 6am - but FRICKEN AWESOME! I think Red Sox Nation should declare Oct. 8th a holiday. And the other thing, it's my birthday - what a great thing to wake up to!

Jere: "How great was the Jeter double play? And then the out he made in the ninth. As my girlfriend said, How come they didn't show his parents after those at bats?? ... I guess if you're a Yankee fan, you'd be "shocked" by the Indians beating you--that's what Caray kept saying. He blurted out, at one point, "this is absolutely amazing," referring to the Indians adding to their lead. Really? The team tied for the best record beating the wild card team by a few runs is "absolutely amazing"? They "shocked" Yankee fans? If they'd been shocked, they would've stayed for the whole game, instead of leaving early because they knew their team would lose. No faith, these Yankee fans. But I don't blame 'em, with the group of chokers they have to root for year after year."

SoSH has a members area in which there is a thread called "Continuing to Make Fun of NYYFans", which collects the best [sic] posts at the MFY fans message board.

This is amusing (note the bold):

From "justinvarnes" in The Coalition to Bring Back ARod thread:

A-Rod,

You've proven you can do it in NYC. You've proven you can hit again in the postseason. You've got a GREAT young pitching staff to win for and make your production even more meaningful. You've also got a young core of kids who look up to you and will help you stay loose and enjoy the game.

You want to win a ring? Look at the talent and the resources the Yankees have. You've already shown you can get it done in the 4 slot. You know year in - year out you'll be playing in October. Ask Derek Jeter about that. Or how about Pettitte and Clemens who came back for another taste? They couldn't get enough. I doubt you could get enough either.

And lastly, did you hear that crowd tonight? There's NOTHING like that. In ANY sport. They love you and your legs will get sore from climbing all the steps from all the curtain calls you'll get. You'll get a plague in the new stadium and be forever connected to the Greatest Team in Sports History...and YOU can sit atop that.

Congratulations to the Yankees for making to the playoffs in a difficult year which saw their pitching in transition and a lot of injuries. Cleveland was clearly the better team.

Congratulations to all those Yankee players and coaches that had a lot of good years. Now they can move along like everybody else.

It's every team's goal to win the WS. To throw your manager under the bus by threatening him in the national media is ridiculous. If you can't be happy your team made it to the postseason, if a first round exit is such a crushing disappointment, then to that extent George and the Yanks can eat shit.

You know, earlier this season, when the Sox had a huge lead, some of us were openly gleeful.

Other JoS commenters told us gleeful ones that we should be more subdued - because if we were too happy, bad things would happen to the Sox, and we would all be humiliated.

Personally, I am so happy that I enjoyed every single minute of this amazing season to the fullest extent I could.

If it hadn't gone our way - if we had blown the division or lost the DS - every fan would have been hurting, the ones who were thrilled and believed all along, and the ones who held their breath waiting for The Bad Thing to happen.

Nothing can change the outcome, but I for one am glad I believed in this team every second of every day.

Zenslinger said:It's every team's goal to win the WS. To throw your manager under the bus by threatening him in the national media is ridiculous. If you can't be happy your team made it to the postseason, if a first round exit is such a crushing disappointment, then to that extent George and the Yanks can eat shit.

This is exactly right. Right there, that's a huge part of what drove me away from them.

It's why I react so strongly when Red Sox fans act that way. Save that shit for the Yankees.

It's why I react so strongly when Red Sox fans act that way. Save that shit for the Yankees.

And they do sometimes. It's very disturbing.

I fllirted with the idea that the Steinbrenner threat was a media ploy, and that they were winking at each other about it. But the obvious emotion there for Torre and other belies that.

It's not that the Yanks don't need a shakeup in the form of a new manager. It's just so absurd to call out an employee who has been so successful for 12 years, and then fire him -- not because they need a change, but because he could only field the third- or fourth-best team in baseball.

I didn't realize until I was skimming the largely idiotic comments on Foxsports.com's "A-Rod Fails to Shine" that the Indians beat the Evil Empire on Indigenous Peoples' Day / Columbus Day. What a blow to colonialism.

Somewhere I have the mp3 file of M&MD the day after the Red Sox won the 2004 pennant. Nothing will top that, but I'll bet today is pretty enjoyable.

I still remember that show - I found it in the fervor of looking for Red Sox stuff after Game 7 (hearing Jon Miller's calls of the Damon GS and the end of the game were tremendous - that he has to do radio while Joe Buck does TV is a legit crime). You're not lying - that first break was incredible. I think Mike wanted to cry, and Mad Dog sounded like a kid who got everything he wanted for Christmas. If you could find it, I'd love to hear it again.

There once was a man named TorreWho again in October says "Sorry""We just couldn't do it"So George says "Just screw it"and throws Joe under a lorry.

I am very partial to limericks. This ones's great.

It's not that the Yanks don't need a shakeup in the form of a new manager. It's just so absurd to call out an employee who has been so successful for 12 years, and then fire him -- not because they need a change, but because he could only field the third- or fourth-best team in baseball.

I love it when the Extra Bases entries on Boston.com sometimes have unique typos.The yankees entry today spelled them as 'yabkees'. I think they have since corrected it .Once they spelled Clemens, as Clemons. I immediately pictured a "lemon throwing" Rah-ger !

It amazes me just how creative and poetic all you haiku and limerick writers are. Thanks for sharing. I haven't read this much poetry in quite a while! It would be great to collect and place them all in one link on JOS to review when we are feeling discouraged perhaps in some future season or just need a good laugh!

With all due respect to Dan W., they've been selling shirts in Kenmore Square for years that say "A-Rod: Mr. April/Miss October." And I always thought it was brilliant because it has the meaning of: "he's great in the beginning, but he misses out on the ring at the end. "Miss" is a verb."

And I swear I was going to write that anyway, but as I scrolled through, I did see L-Girl's thing about sexism. Which I'm totally glad she did, because that's what I thought at first, until I realized the other meaning. (Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some people wear that shirt thinking it means "he's female, and that's bad," but the way I think of it, it's not sexist, just hilarious.)

Thanks for the link, Allan.

Also, "no more champagne, just pagne"-- And no more champions, just pions.